Tesla stock rose as much as 7% Thursday morning in an otherwise difficult day for traditional automakers, following President Donald Trump’s newly announced auto tariffs.
Meanwhile, General Motors saw the biggest declines in the S&P 500, falling 9% at intraday lows. Ford and Volkswagen both slid about 5%.
The explanation is straightforward: Tesla is seen as insulated from levies that will increase the cost of business for companies more reliant on vehicle and part imports. Two of the EV-maker’s biggest factories are in California and Texas.
“Tesla would be less exposed to tariffs as their production and assembly is all in the US,” the Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote.
Other EV stocks also got a boost, with Rivian up 8% and Lucid rising 4% at intraday highs. The chart below shows why: All of the cars sold in the US by the three companies are manufactured domestically.
Bank of America Global Research
“Among auto manufacturers and suppliers, we consider the most exposed to these tariffs to be ‘Detroit Three’ automakers GM, STLA, and F, as well as Canada-based auto supplier MGA, while TSLA screens as the least exposed,” CFRA Research said in a Tuesday note, referring to previous tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
For its part, Tesla said in a post on X that its vehicles are the “most American-made cars,” likely referring to a Cars.com index also cited by CFRA.
But in his own post, CEO Elon Musk that Tesla won’t go unscathed: “The tariff impact on Tesla is still significant.”
“Even Tesla, which manufactures most of its vehicles in the US, will pay more for parts because of competition amongst all manufacturers competing for the existing supply of non-tariffed parts, materials, and components,” Mark Malek, the chief investment officer at Siebert Financial, said in written commentary.
